After the last two days, I am starting to understand how some of Mohammed Ali's opponents must have felt in the boxing ring. This test series has been a roller coaster of emotions and momentum, as both teams' trade punches and counter-punches in an attempt to knock each other out of contention, once and for all. There have been so many swings in the momentum of this series it is almost impossible to predict a winner, even though there is only two days left in the series.

Having convincingly taken the upper hand after day one, it would have taken a courageous punter to bet against us for this crucial finale. This distinct advantage was blown out of the water by in-form off spinner Harbhajan Singh in the first session of day two. We probably scored at least one hundred runs less than we had set ourselves when stumps had been drawn on Sunday afternoon. With his wily off spinners, Singh continued to cause us a few headaches as he ripped through our middle order with the confidence and cockiness of a seasoned campaigner.

By stumps last night, India had taken a major step towards clawing back our promising first day advantage. With the pitch playing few tricks and VVS Laxman and SS Das looking in ominous form, a tough day was on the cards today. We were not disappointed. In fact, in the heat, deafening noise, and dust, of the Madras Cricket Club, I could categorically say today was one of the longest and hardest day's of test cricket that I have been involved in. Apart from Glenn McGrath's wicket with the first ball of the day, the contest turned into a classic heavyweight slugging match, as each hour saw a swing in the pendulum of advantage.

"Apart from Glenn McGrath's wicket with the first ball of the day, the contest turned into a classic heavyweight slugging match, as each hour saw a swing in the pendulum of advantage"

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid played outstanding individual inning's, as they shared in a partnership that threatened to ruin our ambition of winning a series in India. Thanks to a magnificent bowling spell by Jason Gillespie after tea, we have been given some sort of reprieve, as the potentially match winning partnership was distracted by a display of very, very fast bowling.

When defining class in terms of batting prowess, the dictionary would name Sachin Tendulkar in a league of his own. When he gets going, he seems unstoppable as he crashes the ball, with his distinctively heavy bat, to all parts of the ground. How a man of such short stature and serene nature can be so destructive with a bat in his hands is beyond comprehension.

The last hour of play allowed us to see a light at the end of this test match tunnel. Admittedly India are eighty runs in front of us on the first innings, but we know a solid batting performance tomorrow means India will have to bat last on this pitch. As we witnessed in Calcutta last week, the Indian pitches tend to take more and more turn as the game progresses. Any lead we can obtain tomorrow will give us a real chance to win this third test match.

This contest has been a war on the field. After five solid weeks of cricket, the battle is as much about mental toughness and stamina as it is about bat against ball in the morning.

From Chennai

JL

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